


Violent Timing (Explains The Aftermath)

by mrfreddyjones



Series: Dark Blue [3]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Static Shock, The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: (mentioned) Suicide Squad, (referenced) Heroes, (referenced) Highlander, (referenced) Orange Is The New Black, (referenced) Oz, (referenced) Prison Break, (referenced) Skynet, (referenced) Sylar, (referenced) Terminator, Abuse, Character Deaths, F/M, M/M, PTSD, Referenced suicide, Violence, mentioned communism, referenced domestic violence, referenced hate crime, reverenced (but not explicitly used) homophobic language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-03
Updated: 2015-11-07
Packaged: 2018-04-29 19:44:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5140205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrfreddyjones/pseuds/mrfreddyjones
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked, getting up from his bed in a jump.</p><p>“Oh, didn’t you know?” Barry Allen – fucking <em>Barry Allen</em> – grinned and shrugged, as if it were all a big game. “I’m a meta”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for abuse, violence, PTSD, referenced suicide, referenced domestic violence, referenced (but not explicitly used) homophobic language, referenced hate crime, character deaths.  
> Title from the song Dark Blue by No Doubt.  
> Somewhat inspired by the Speed Force vision of Barry in Iron Heights.

Len’s cellmate died.

At least, that was the cover story, but Len wasn’t _stupid_. He saw the man talking to some lady in high heels who looked like she belonged _anywhere but_ Iron Heights one night, and then saw him leave the night after that. In the morning, a body bag was being wheeled away from the cell, and the guards were saying he had a heart-attack or some shit, and because Len wasn’t stupid, he knew not to open his mouth. He also knew that there was now an opening, and with how The Flash kept sending criminals their way, his peace wouldn’t last for long. His last cellmate wasn’t so bad – sure, he was a psychopath with delusions of grandeur, but because Len didn’t have any powers, _Leech_ wasn’t actually a threat to him. Plus, he was organized and relatively quiet. Len knew his new cellmate most likely wouldn’t be – with his luck, he’d probably get some _all-over-the-place, can’t-shut-up_ kid. Still, he wasn’t expecting who he got.

When the young man walked into the cell, in a slightly-too-big gray jumpsuit, holding a pillow, a towel, a change of clothes, a pair of flip-flops, and a small transparent bag filled with toiletries on his arms, Len’s heart dropped. The look on his eyes was still the same, although he seemed uncharacteristically tired, and the small smile he offered upon seeing Len hadn’t changed, either – cocky, as if he knew everything.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked, getting up from his bed in a jump.

“Oh, didn’t you know?” Barry Allen – fucking _Barry Allen_ – grinned and shrugged, as if it were all a big game. “I’m a meta”

The guard who’d brought him there left without a word, and Len wanted to chase after him, to shout that this must be some kind of mistake. That this kid was a hero. Instead, he glared at Allen for a moment. “What _the fuck_ are you doing here, Barry?”

Barry had moved to the side of _his_ bed, now, dropping his belongings on the thin mattress casually. “Are you allowed to ask that? Because, like, I saw Orange Is The New Black, and I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to-”

He was cut by Len pushing him against the wall, face just inches from the speedster’s. “You think this is _funny_? Do you not _understand_ what you just did? _Why_?”

Barry didn’t flinch. He didn’t seem scared, didn’t make any move to get away from him. Instead he just stared at Len, right into his eyes. “You know why”

“To _save_ me” Len stepped back. This wasn’t right, it shouldn’t be happening. His heart was racing again, hands beginning to shake, and he hated everything – he hated Barry, and Barry’s stupid wide-eyed _hope,_ and his father, and _himself_. He could hear the old man still, in his head, _you destroy everything you touch, don’t you, you little bastard?_ “So you _ruined your life_ for me. That’s just _brilliant_ , Barry” his voice was higher than usual, his breathing caught in the back of his throat. Maybe his father was right. Maybe he was toxic. _Not even your mother could stand you_. “The _hero of Central City_ is behind bars because of me. That's just- That’s just great” Len’s vision was turning blurry now, obstructed by tears he didn’t want to let out – not in front of Barry fucking Allen.

Barry fucking Allen, who was now standing so far away, and Len didn’t even realize it was because he had stepped back until his back hit the bars on the other side of the cell. Barry fucking Allen who was looking at him with not with pity, but with something else entirely. Barry fucking Allen, who, in a flash crossed the cell and closed the space between them and wrapped his arms around Len, in an embrace that was so _warm_ and _wrong_ but that felt so _safe_ and _right_. Barry fucking Allen, who stood still and didn’t say a thing when Len’s face made its way to the crook of his neck.

 

* * *

 

Every inmate had a job.

It was part of their punishment, Len supposed, that they would be forced into mind-numbing, repetitive labor for a sad joke of a payment. Len’s brand of punishment was working in the assembly line for Palmer Tech’s newest wristwatch, the one that’s supposed to _replace your computer_ , and if he thinks it is a terrible idea to give inmates access to that sort of technology (especially since one of them is a technopath) he doesn’t say anything – after all, if Blacksmith wanted to bring upon Skynet, _at least_ that would give Len a way out of prison.

And, of course, Barry Allen had been assigned the same job as him. And, _of course_ , Barry Allen bailed halfway through his first day.

He’d gotten a call on his earpiece, which he’d somehow _sneaked into prison_ , and given Len an apologetic look, mumbling something about a _Black Flash_ , and in a flash, he’s gone. It shouldn’t surprise Len that Allen can escape even a prison designed to hold metahumans, considering how smart the kid is, and the fact that this place was built by his friends, and yet, it does. And when Barry comes back, trying to act as if nothing happened, a cocky grin playing on his lips as he denies to ever leaving the workshop, he can’t help but smile himself.

“Seriously, what was that about a Black Flash?” He asked Barry when they got back to work. It truly astonished to him how _fast_ Allen assembled the tiny computers.

“I have no idea,” the Scarlet Speedster confessed, turned to Len with a puzzled expression. “Jay almost had a heart attack today. He swore there was a guy in S.T.A.R. Labs, just watching him” Len raised an eyebrow at that. He had no idea who this _Jay_ character was, but it seemed strange that someone would be stalking S.T.A.R. Labs. “At first I thought it was _Zoom_ , but-” Barry stopped for a moment, lips curving into a grin. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”

“Not the slightest”

Barry laughed at that, and his laugh was sort of intoxicating. In the five hours since he’d shown up in prison, excluding the first fifteen minutes of shouting and crying, and the ten minutes he was gone, they’d only made small talk. The weather, prison food (“If you thought _airplane food_ was bad” Len had warned Barry with a devious grin), gossip about the guards’ love lives (Len was convinced Officer DILF, how he called a beefy middle-aged man with a thick mustache, and Officer Bradshaw, how he called the Sarah Jessica Parker-looking officer who always seemed to be in a good mood after lunch time, were doing it at the supply closet every day while the inmates ate that disgusting paste their government had the audacity to call _food_ ). “Jay is… He’s from a parallel universe,” Barry said, simply. “He was The Flash in his universe, and when-” he swallowed, and even though he didn’t say anything, Len noticed how visibly uncomfortable Barry had become. “He came in through the Singularity. You know, big wormhole over the city.” He waved his hand in a circular motion. “Anyways, Zoom came with him. He’s kind of _his_ Reverse Flash, except he wears this dark-blue outfit, and he’s hellbent on killing every speedster in the multiverse. So we’re working together to stop him before he, I don’t know, takes over the world or something”

“Honey,” a woman’s voice came from behind Barry, and Len couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped his lips when the hero turned around quickly, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. “Don’t let the guards hear you talking like that, or they’ll put you in a _special_ cell”

“Barry, meet Francine,” he smiled. “Francine, meet Barry”

The woman smiled at him, a warm smile, which Barry could tell hid deep sadness.

“Barry here is a _speedster_ ” Len grinned, finding the way Barry squirmed to be very _entertaining_.

“Like The Flash?” She asked, trying to hide her interest.

“ _Exactly_ like The Flash” Len offered. “Right kid?”

“I- I wouldn’t say-” Barry was stammering, tripping over his words. “I’m not- I’m not _The Flash_. Who’s _that_ guy? I hate him. He’s so… Red. Why so much red? Is he a communist? I- I bet he’s a communist”

The woman was laughing, and so was Len. “Smooth, Allen.” Barry glared at him, and for a few seconds, Len forgot about everything else, everything that wasn’t what Barry looked like when he was panicking. “Magenta here is a _big fan_ of The Flash,” he said then.

The woman blushed at that. “He… He inspires me to do better,” she admitted, with a shy smile. “When I get out, I’m going to turn a new leaf and start over. Might even become a heroine”

The name finally clicked with Barry. “Magenta? Didn’t The Flash stop you from killing a whole stadium full of people?”

She flinched at that, ashamed. “That was…” she trailed off, averting his gaze.

“Francine has a medical condition,” Len stepped in. “She shouldn’t even _be_ here, but her lawyer was a shitty one and the jury was prejudiced,” he explained, voice even. He knew from experience what it felt like to be pitied, and he hated that feeling. “But she’s _better_ now. She’s on some new medication, and she’s even up for parole. Isn’t that right, kid?” Francine nodded, and suddenly her words to Barry had made so much sense. _A special cell_. “You should see her powers, Barry. She does this thing with magnets, it’s _fantastic_.”

 

* * *

 

The day hadn’t been half-bad, which meant a lot considering where they were. Work had been boring, but Allen made a new friend and learned a valuable lesson about villains who _could_ be saved. _Maybe now he’ll leave me alone_ , Len thought, and he refused to acknowledge the sharp cut of sadness that thought caused him. “Detective West must be pissed,” he said, somewhat surprised that he was the one breaking the silence. “About you being in jail. What did you do, anyways?”

Barry looked over at him from his own bed. “Haven’t we already established that you can’t ask me why I’m here?” He grinned

“ _No,”_ Len rolled his eyes. “We established that you think this is _Orange Is The New Black_. Just a heads up, kid, this is more like _Oz_ ”

Barry laughed. He _laughed_ , and for a moment, Len wanted to punch him. Or kiss him. Or both.

“I would’ve guessed _Prison Break_ ” Barry teases, and Len winces.

“I hated that show,” the criminal informs him.

“Really?” Barry raises an eyebrow at that. “I loved it”

“Joshua Jackson’s performance was incredibly over-rated” Len groaned. “ _I_ could’ve done better”

Barry threw his pillow at him.


	2. Chapter 2

_“Kill him or you’ll never see your sister alive”_

_The words echoed through the hallway, more than they should. Time was wrong, time and everything else, ticking just out of sync with the universe. Len’s hands were shaking, his heart pounding in his ears like thunder._

_“It’s okay”_

_He wasn’t aiming at The Flash. The man who told him it was okay wasn’t the man who saved Central City, wasn’t the_ hero _he’d known. The man he was aiming his gun at was Barry Allen, a kid, with his whole life ahead of him. A live he wouldn’t get to live now, because of Len._

_“I’m sorry, Barry,” he said, tears burning hot against his skin, and Barry was_ smiling _at him, gentle and understanding. A blaze of white light filled the room, and then Barry fell._

_Time had frozen._

_“That’s my boy”_

Len woke up with a jolt, his heart racing, hands cold, drenched in sweat. The nightmares weren’t new, although _this_ one in particular was. Normally, he would lie awake in silence, staring at the ceiling above him, taking a moment to remind himself where he was, that he was _safe_ and that Lewis could never reach him again – that Lewis would never hurt him again. This time, however, he couldn’t help the sob that escaped his lips, choked out and loud into the night. The tears that followed were as hot as the ones on his nightmare, bitter and burning against his skin.

He didn’t even notice he’d sat up, or that Barry was awake until he felt the lean, long arms wrapping around him, pulling him into a warm embrace. Neither of them said anything.

 

* * *

 

**1985**

It happened at fall. The weather was starting to change, the air was crisp, and Lewis hadn’t been home in two days. One morning, Len, then 8 years old, heard his mother cry on the phone, telling someone she couldn’t do it anymore, she couldn’t take it. Her hands were shaking and she had a black eye, but they never talked about it. He’d asked her about it once, and she’d told him it was _grown up stuff_. He knew something was wrong, but he also knew not to ask again. A few hours later, he heard the unmistakable sound of his father’s keys scratching against the door, which was never a good sign – it meant Lewis was drunk. It was routine by now, when they heard that noise. He’d exchange one look with his mother, and within seconds he’d be climbing the stairs with his sister, hoping against all hope to keep her safe from the hell going on downstairs.

A few hours later, he woke up to his sister crying. He made his way to the crib, noticing the clock on the wall which read _3:00 AM_. Len tried to calm her down, whispered soothing words to her as he ran his fingers through her short brown hair. She’d had a nightmare, something he was already used to, but to her it was still new. He remembered waking up screaming, every night, until he realized his father only showed up in his door, drunk and furious, yelling about how _Snarts don’t feel fear,_ and how he’d _teach_ Len not to cry, when he woke up screaming.

He didn’t scream anymore.

The clock was reading 3:02 now, and nobody had shown up yet. Something was wrong, he knew very well that it only too their father 43 seconds to get to their room, 52 if he was drunk, and his mother between 47 and 56 seconds. He left the room slowly, careful steps down the hallway, only to find that there was nobody on his parents’ room. There was no sign of either of them going to sleep, and no sound to indicate they were still awake downstairs. It was then that Len saw the light of the bathroom bleeding from beneath the door, the silence calling to him. Something was wrong.

When he opened the door, he wished he hadn’t. His small frame was shaking violently on the seconds that followed, when he moved away from the brightly-lit bathroom, back to the bedroom he shared with Lisa. He was crying, tears he didn’t even think to hold back. That night he held his sister close to him, in his arms, and they both cried as he tried not to think about what he saw. As he tried not to think about their mother’s body in the bathtub, water tinted with blood, a lifeless stare on her eyes.

 

* * *

 

**1988**

Len was eleven years old when Child Protective Services knocked on their door. He’d missed school that day, face too bruised to cover up, but Lisa hadn’t – her bruises were easily hidden by her blouse. A teacher had called then, when a kid threw a ball at Lisa’s back during recess and the seven years old girl cried out in way too much pain.

Lewis had gone at them with his belt the night before, and Lisa had told the teacher when she asked. All the blood drained from Len’s face when he opened the door, to find his sister and _Uncle Tom_ , who looked _pissed_. “Is your father home?”

Len shook his head no, stepping to the side to let them both in. Lisa seemed as scared as he was.

“Your sister here has quite the imagination, you know?” The man said, closing the door behind him. “Would you believe she made up some _crazy story_ about your father hitting the two of you with his belt _for no reason_?” The man, a heavy-set 40-years-old, with a thick mustache and thinning black hair, glared at the girl, and she winced. Len wished _Uncle Tom_ and Lewis would both just die already. “Now, I don’t doubt your dad _disciplined_ the two of you last night, but come on, boy. The two of you got to have done _something_ wrong, right?”

Len nodded slowly. They hadn’t finished dinner before he got home, and that was a grave offence at the Snart household – almost as grave as talking back, or _existing_ when Lewis had had a bad day at work. But no offence was quite as grave as the one Lisa had committed that day. No offence was worse than telling someone.

_Uncle Tom_ made the whole thing disappear, a personal favor to their father, and that night, when Lewis got home, he made sure neither of his kids would speak up again.

 

* * *

 

**1993**

Len was 16 when his father found out he was gay. He was in high school, at that age on which everything seems permanent, when he met Ian. Ian had dirty blonde hair, awkward long limbs, and a radiant smile that reached his emerald green eyes in a way that made Len’s heart race like it had never before. They kissed for the first time behind the school, and for the second time on Ian’s car. Ian had a hunger for _more_ , a fire within him burning brightly, pointing him to great things, and that dumb courage kids have when they think they can conquer the world. He wanted to hold Len’s hand, to take him to prom. They kissed for the last time the night before everything changed.

Ian died on a Tuesday. _Random gang violence_ , the news had called it, but Len knew there was nothing random about it. The police didn’t catch the killer, but they weren’t looking. Just as they weren’t looking when Lewis beat the fear of God into his son that night, barking that he hadn’t raised his son to be a – he spit the word with such hatred, Len felt dirty. He felt broken, and he couldn’t understand how something so beautiful like the love he felt could cause so much anger. How it could’ve triggered something so ugly. “ _You’re lucky I don’t do you like I did your little friend_ ,” Lewis had told him that night, when he was lying on the ground, bruised and beaten and bleeding. “ _You have until morning to get the fuck out of my house, or you’ll be getting out in a bag_ ”

It was Lisa, then twelve years old, who cleaned his wounds, cried as she begged him not to go, not to leave her alone with their father. It was Lisa who told him their father was wrong, that their father’s hatred was the real perversion, the real sin. In the morning, Len was gone – and so was Lisa.

His first crime was kidnapping his baby sister.

 

* * *

 

**1996**

News of Lewis’ arrest made their way to the Snart – then going by Rory – siblings. They’d been living in Starling City for the past three years, in a falling-apart house with a slightly older boy named Mick Rory. They’d been found by Mick, fresh off of High School, working a summer job at a convenience store, trying to steal a pack of Oreos. Len had asked the boy not to call the cops, explaining that his baby sister was just hungry, and to his surprise, Mick instead offered to have them come home with him for dinner. At the small house on the Glades, Len told their story to Mick and his mother, a widow who knew from experience the hardships of life, and she’d promised they could stay for as long as they needed. When she died, two years later, Mick, Len and Lisa were a family. Upon hearing of Lewis’ arrest, Len and Lisa decided to go back to Central City. They missed the place, in spite of everything. Mick, who had nothing left for him in Starling, went with them.

Coming to town, the trio had been stopped by a young cop, with dark skin and hair. Officer West recognized the two kids instantly, and took them back to the station – only to inform them that, on the light of new evidence, Leonard Snart was no longer wanted for the kidnapping of Lisa Snart. Instead, he was now her legal guardian.

 

* * *

 

The first thing Len noticed upon waking up was that he wasn’t alone in bed. Slowly, the events of the previous night came back to him – he’d had a nightmare, a nightmare about _killing Barry Allen_. Barry’s arms were wrapped around him still, warm and steady, and _safe_ , and Len wanted to resist it – he really, _really_ wanted push him away. To _save_ Barry Allen from the black hole that was his life, to stop the hero from going down with him. But resisting Barry Allen was exhausting, _being alone_ was exhausting, and all that he wanted was to feel safe. All that he wanted was to feel loved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My headcanon for Len’s mother is that she’s called Leah and she’s played by the lovely [Zoe Saldana](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Zoe_Salda%C3%B1a,_Comic-Con_2009.jpg).  
> Also, in this story, Len is 38 years old, Lisa is 34, their mother was 30 when she died, and their father was 70 when he died. 
> 
> EDIT: I messed up. I was recently informed that I had cast Len's mother, a POC, as white. I honestly had no idea, but that doesn't matter. I'm sorry. I have updated Leah's faceclaim.  
> I would like to thank Cali ([DaughterofScotland](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Daughter_of_Scotland/pseuds/Daughter_of_Scotland)) for letting me know what I'd done, and for suggesting Zoe.


	3. Chapter 3

“This is taking longer than we planned,” Joe said into the receiver, letting out a tired sigh. “Barry, your friends need you”

“Joe, Len needs me, too” he said, running a hand through his hair. In the two weeks since his arrest, Barry had made real progress with the criminal known as Captain Cold. In that time, the older man had gone from _Snart_ (“I hate that name,” he’d told Barry one night, after waking up from yet another nightmare. “It’s my father’s name”) to _Len_ (“You know, my mother used to call me _Len_ ”), and he was letting Barry in. “The team has Firestorm, and Lisa and Mick are helping, too!”

Barry saw that Joe wanted to say something, probably something about how _Rory_ and _Snart’s sister_ had become Mick and Lisa, about how the Rogues had gone from _criminals_ to _real people_. He saw the look on Joe’s eyes, how he didn’t approve of Barry _humanizing_ the villains, but even Joe would have to admit that in the weeks following Len’s arrest, they’d been acting _nothing_ like villains. On Barry’s book, the Rogues were as deserving of the title of  _hero_ as was The Flash.

“Heat Wave and Golden Glider aren’t enough against Zoom, and _you know it_ Barry” Joe glared at the speedster.

“We don’t even know how to defeat Zoom yet,” Barry shot back, leaning back on his chair. “Besides, when they really need The Flash, they call, and I go. I’ve escaped this sad joke of a prison _twelve times_ in the past week alone!”

 

* * *

 

**SIX DAYS BEFORE HIS ARREST**

Visiting Snart on Fridays had become part of Barry’s routine. Most days they didn’t say anything, but he wasn’t about to give up. Not when he’d seen so much pain and suffering on the man’s eyes, so much fear on that moment Lewis turned around to face his son. Barry realized in that moment that Snart’s father, too, had been arrested for most of his kids’ lives, and he couldn’t imagine what it felt like for them to know their father was _actually guilty_ of all the crimes that landed him in Iron Heights. Snart reminded Barry of how lucky he was to have his own father and Joe, and he’d hoped he could help the man now, that he could show him that it wasn’t his fault – it was Lewis’ – and that he wasn’t his father, and shouldn’t pay for his father’s sins.

And now he couldn’t even see him.

Walking out of Iron Heights, Barry reached for his cellphone, calling the number which had been placed in the memory of the device weeks ago. “Lisa,” he said, the moment the woman picked up. “Your brother kicked me out of his visitation list”

They met for coffee fifteen minutes after that, at CC Jitters. When Lisa arrived, Barry was already waiting for her with their drinks. She’d told him not take it personally, _“Snarts don’t ask for help,”_ she said, and he refused to believe that.

He refused to let Leonard Snart go down for the one crime he didn’t commit.

So he pulled out his phone again.

 

* * *

 

A lot of people visit Barry Allen in prison.

On Mondays, Lisa and Mick came along. Lisa met up with Len first, while Mick and Barry chatted about the city, the latest meta the Rogues and Team Flash had captured, or things Mick could burn on his time off. Then, forty minutes later, they’d switch, and Len would catch up with his best friend, while Lisa filled Barry in on Cisco’s nicknames for the metas, or the surprisingly entertaining odyssey of Caitlin Snow and Jay Garrick, or the latest person to cross from Earth-2 (the most recent had been Boom, a metahuman with an actual speaker on his chest).

Tuesdays were the day Joe and Iris came along. Joe was always incredibly uncomfortable with seeing Barry in Iron Heights, even though he knew the speedster wasn’t actually an inmate. “I don’t like this,” he’d told Barry one day. “If any of these psychos finds out who you really are, you could be in real shit, Barry”. They usually talk for half an hour before Joe excuses himself, to go have a coffee, or a water, or just think of anything but his son – because that’s what Barry was, his kid, just as much as Iris – behind bars, and Iris comes in, and they talk for about an hour about everything and nothing, and she’s the first person he tells about his feelings for Len, and she’s as supportive as he wishes everyone would be – even when she assures him that they will.

On Wednesdays, Caitlin and Cisco are the ones to show up, and they see Barry together, and talk about science and improvements to the suit, but they also talk about Mick and Lisa and how surprising it is that they are all working together, even though they’ve been working together since before Barry was arrested – Heat Wave and Golden Glider would step up and fill in for The Flash on Fridays so Barry could see Len. Cisco tells Barry about his newfound powers one day, when he insists the speedster should stay away from one Jeremy Tell, and then admitted it was because the meta, known as _Double Down_ , was going to try to kill him in the showers.

Thursdays were reserved for Felicity, who always brought him food and gossip from Star City, and the info turned out to always be useful for him. When Tell turned out to be the same asshole who’d beaten Len, Barry used the info Felicity had brought him to make it look like H.I.V.E had arranged for him to get beat up in prison when he broke both of the man’s arms.

And while he didn’t get any visitors on Fridays, he always got a phone call from Lyla checking in on him, asking if he needed anything or if anyone was causing him trouble. He may have asked her to have Tell moved to solitary, out of spite.

 

* * *

 

**THREE DAYS BEFORE HIS ARREST**

“This is crazy,” Caitlin said, pacing across the room. “Barry have you _lost your mind?_ ”

Joe was sitting at the side of the room, running his hands over his head tiredly. “Barry I’ve got to agree with Caitlin here,” he said, throwing the speedster a pleading look. “Come on, there’s got to be another way”

Barry was leaning against the computer desk, looking just as tired, but decided. There was a certain fire in his eyes, one that hadn’t been there for a while now. Iris recognized it from when Eddie was taken by Wells, and Joe recognized it too, from when Iris was taken by Tony. Neither of them brings it up, and Barry is thankful for that. He can’t begin to explain, or even deal with, whatever the fuck he’s feeling right now.

“There isn’t.” He said, stepping away from the desk. “Snart doesn’t want to see me, and I can’t exactly break into Iron Heights every week to chat with Captain Cold, now, can I?”

“And what about The Flash?” Caitlin asked. “What are we going to do the next time a metahuman is terrorizing, or the next time Zoom comes around?”

Barry exchanged a look with the two criminals standing by the door. “Snart’s sister and Rory can fill in for me,” he said, offering a small smile at the two, and they nodded right back at him. “And when you _really_ need me, I can speed out of Iron Heights and be here within seconds. I won’t be an _actual_ inmate”

“You see, that’s another thing,” Cisco, who’d been sitting in front of the computer, raised his hand. “It’s one thing for them to fill in for you for half an hour a week, I can handle that. But to actually join the team? I mean, how do we know they aren’t going to turn on us _again_?” He turned his chair around, to face the criminals. “No offense, Lisa” he grinned at her, and Caitlin rolled her eyes

“None taken,” Lisa winked at Cisco, and Iris, who’d been quiet all along, held back a laugh.

“The kid says he can get Len out of Iron Heights,” Rory said, sounding calmer than any of them (with the exception of Lisa) had ever heard him. “We have no reason to turn on you”

Nobody missed the way Rory offered a small smile to Barry, as if they knew something neither of was telling the others. “Look, guys, I’ve been spending a lot of time with them,” Barry said, and it was true. In the wake of Len’s arrest, The Rogues and The Flash had found a lot of common ground. “And I trust them. Just as much as I trust you.”

“Do it,” Iris said, and that surprised everyone in the room. “If you believe it is the right thing to do, if you really want to do it, I say go for it.” She smiled, glancing over at the pair of Rogues. “Besides, if you trust them, then so do I”

Barry reached for his phone once again.

 

* * *

 

Barry liked to watch Len sleep. To see the other as close to relaxed as he’d ever seen, to know that Len trusted him enough to fall asleep first, it made him feel better. It made him feel like he truly was getting across to him. Like maybe this wasn’t in vain.

Those thoughts reassured him. Brought him peace, acceptance of his own feelings. If Len wasn’t beyond saving, then it was okay to love him.

It was okay to be in love with him.

In the weeks since the death of Lewis Snart, Barry had seen Len under an entirely new light, and he’d found within himself a certain appreciation for the older man.

As a young teen, Barry had a habit of falling for the bad boys. Of course, he never fell for one _in real life_ , but still, he had a type – and his type was usually the villain. Except, they weren’t, at least not when _he_ thought about them. They were misunderstood, victims of circumstances. He’d strip them of all of their autonomy, their choices, and sometimes even the pleasure they got from being _bad_ , and instead he’d project on them the innocence he wanted to see.

Before he came to prison, Iris had asked him, when no-one else was listening, if he was falling back into old habits. “Barry,” she’d asked him, “is this _Sylar_ again?”, and to his surprise, it wasn’t.

Len had had a rough time. He clearly needed Barry’s help. He was also Captain Cold, an unapologetic criminal – one who did it for the thrill, one for whom it was all a game. He was both at the same time, and a third person who was a mixture of the previous two. He was complex and multi-dimensional and _real_ in a way that none of Barry’s previous villain crushes had ever been – and that was because Snart wasn’t a _Villain_. He was a person. He couldn’t classify Snart as _good_ or _evil_ because those extremes weren’t enough. Cold was both, and neither. He just _was_.

Barry is then pulled from his memories, from his watching over Len’s sleep, by a powerful female voice – one that he’s heard before, the one that got him into Iron Heights.

“Mr. Allen,” she said, and he turned to look at the woman. Her hair was slicked back, her clothes were perfectly fitting, and her eyes held more power than he’d seen in his life. It was the first time he saw her, and his first impression was that she was more dangerous than Wells and Zoom and everything he’d ever faced before. “We need to talk.”


	4. Chapter 4

Len was a light sleeper.

Growing up the way he had, he could never relax enough to truly let go of his surroundings, and the slightest of noises was normally enough to wake him up, to put him in a fight-or-flight state. And when the familiar sound of high heels that should not be anywhere near Iron Heights clicking against the hard ground echoed through the halls, it woke him up instantly.

“Mr. Allen,” a woman’s voice said, and Len’s heart tightened for a moment. _Will she take him, too?_ “We need to talk.”

“Ms. Waller?” Barry replied, and Len furrowed his brows at that. _He knows this woman_?

“Your services are needed, Mr. Allen,” she said, going straight to business. “Zoom has taken down two of my best agents-”

Len could feel Barry’s panic. “Is Lyla-?”

“Agent Michaels is fine, she’s _too valuable_ to be sent after Zoom” he heard the woman assure Barry, and even he let out a relieved breath – despite not knowing who this _Lyla Michaels_ was, if she was a friend of Barry’s, he didn’t want the hero to lose her. “I mean two of my best _disposable_ agents”

“You mean from the Suicide Squad,” Barry said, and his voice was small, almost guilty. Len could tell Barry didn't agree with the woman's methods. He had heard things about it, whispers, but he never thought they were actually true. Or that Barry Allen would know the people responsible for it.

“Yes. Zoom has taken down both Leech and Harkness, and quite honestly, I am _tired_ of him _._ ” She said, her glare clear even for Len, who was facing the other way. Len, who recognized the name _Leech_ instantly.

“But- We’re- We’re not _ready_ -” Barry tried to protest.

“Mr. Allen, as surprising as that may sound to you, _I do not_ _care_. I helped you get into prison because Agent Michaels speaks highly of you, but if you are as smart as she thinks you are, then you _must’ve_ known it wouldn’t be for free. Your services are needed, and they are needed to clean _your own mess_. Zoom came to this world through a wormhole in _your_ jurisdiction, a wormhole that only happened to begin with _because of you_ , so stop whatever game you’re playing in here and go deal with it, because, trust me, neither of us wants _me_ to be forced to do it”

Silence filled the room for a long moment.

“You can bring your boyfriend if you want, like I said, I _don’t_ _care._ Just fix this mess.” she said, and then only sound in the night was the one of her heels clicking as she walked away.

 

* * *

 

Neither of them mentioned the _boyfriend_ bomb Amanda Waller had dropped. Len didn’t bring up the fact that Barry was watching him sleep, and in return, the speedster didn’t address the fact that the criminal had been eavesdropping. Barry escaped prison once again, this time taking Len with him, and in less than a minute they’re at S.T.A.R. Labs. It takes the others between fifteen and nineteen minutes to arrive, and when they do, Len is surprised to find that Mick and Lisa have been working with the heroes in his absence.

“Ok, what do we know so far?” Barry asked, pacing the room.

“Zoom is faster than you or me,” A new guy, one everyone keeps calling _Jay_ says.

“Or the Reverse-Flash,” Cisco adds, from where he’s standing way too close to Lisa. _What_ have _I missed?_ Len thinks, as Lisa smirks at him.

“He’s hellbent in killing every speedster,” Detective West, who’s watching him suspiciously from where he sits on some steps, adds.

“Someone took _Highlander_ way too seriously,” Cisco makes a face, and Lisa laughs at that, and seeing his sister laugh is something of which Len never tires. Knowing that _Cisco_ is the one to make her laugh makes him respect the kid a bit more.

“What’s a Highlander?” This _Jay_ guy asks, and it’s only then that Len remembers Barry telling him about a Flash from a different universe. That must be the guy.

“Dude, seriously?” Cisco rolls his eyes, and Lisa and Mick both snort at that. “Don’t you guys have any _fun_ in Earth-2?”

Even Len has to laugh at that one.

“You guys, focus” a young woman, with dark skin and Detective West’s eyes, whom Len recognizes as Barry’s friend Iris, steps back into the room, carrying a large bag of Big Belly Burgers. “Zoom”

She smiles at him, and Len nods at that, not bringing up the fact that she looks at him differently from the others, in a way similar to how Lisa looks at Barry.

“He’s way too fast,” Barry runs his hand through his hair, sighing. He’s tired, Len can tell.

“And strong” Jay finishes.

“He’s outnumbered,” Mick offers, and Lisa agrees.

“We don’t know that,” Caitlin says, taking one of the burgers Iris had brought. “For all we know he can have his own army from Earth-2.”

Everybody goes quiet after that.

Almost an entire minute goes by until Cisco makes a sound, like he’s gasping for air, and his entire body shakes. The kid actually looks like he’s about to pass out, and if it weren’t for Lisa’s arms around him, he probably would’ve fallen. And then everyone is looking at him, and he says that Zoom is alone. And then he looks at Jay, but doesn’t say anything else.

Len is the one to break the silence.

“This _Zoom_ guy, he’s a speedster? Like Barry?” He asks, prompting the others to nod. “Then isn’t it logical to assume that he has the same _weaknesses_ as Barry?”

It clicks with everyone at once after a moment.

“The cold gun-” Cisco whispers, and Len grins.

“Bingo”

 

* * *

 

Apparently, they were all busy while Len and Barry rotted in prison.

As they prepared to face off against this _Zoom_ character, they divided into smaller groups – surprising groups, even. Caitlin, Cisco, the man with Gray hair and a kid with a short buzz cut, who, according to Lisa, are called Professor Stein and Jax, respectively, and who, according to Mick, combine to form a _fucking awesome_ _burning man_ (his words), were standing in a corner: “Remember what we talked about,” the gray-haired man said, sounding a lot like a professor indeed, “envision the energy flowing through you. Don’t fight it, feel it running in your veins, and _channel_ it.”

On the other side of the room, Mick, Lisa, and Iris stood, Mick with his trusty fire gun, Lisa with her gold one, and Iris with one that _looked_ somewhat like Lisa’s, but different. “That’s new,” Len told Barry, and the speedster just grinned at him.

Jay walked back into the room, wearing something that looked _nothing_ like The Flash’s uniform, or even remotely practical – he had a helmed attached to _literally nothing_ , which, by all logic, should fly away from his face as soon as he started to run. And how the fuck did he expect to keep his identity secret with his face so goddamn exposed? – and Len felt strangely proud that _his_ Flash was the best one (and when did he begin thinking about Barry as _his_?), and detective West, carrying his cold gun.

The detective hands it to Len with a serious look on his face, and without even blinking he says: “If you hurt my kid, I’ll snap your neck”

Iris looks like she’s about to say something, the room having gone silent, but Len just nods. “He’s lucky to have you, detective” he says, as he looks away from the man in front of him, towards his sister, and then Iris. “They both are”

The look Iris gives to him is one of empathy, one that says she’s sad that he went through all that he went through, but not one of pity. She’s looking at him with something else, too, and it takes a moment (and her smiling) for him to realize that it is respect. (Later she’d tell him, _“You’re a survivor, Leonard,”_ and squeeze his arm. _“And you deserve to be happy”_ )

Joe’s look has softened somewhat, too, and he nods at Len, and in that moment, Captain Cold sees the police officer who told him he was free to go all those years ago.

 

* * *

 

They arrive at the location Cisco had seen ( _and since when was Cisco a psychic?_ ), and as if on cue, a man who _looked_ like The Flash, but wearing a dark-blue-and-black suit, was waiting for them.

“Flash,” the man said, his voice an animalistic roar. “You’ve come… To die”


	5. Chapter 5

“Flash,” the man said, his voice an animalistic roar. “You’ve come… To die”

Sten and Jax merged into Firestorm within seconds. Caitlin’s hair turned a shade of blonde that was almost white, her fingertips turning an unmistakable shade of _ice_. Cisco didn’t change, but the air around him vibrated in such a way that made the image of him like a wave. Both Flashes assumed fighting position, although it wasn’t lost to Len that one of them had a gun. Joe, Lisa, Mick, Iris, and him all aimed their guns at the man in front of them.

“ _And you brought friends_ ”

They dispersed as the man moved, and in a flash he was standing in front of Jay. Caitlin’s scream echoed through the night as Zoom shoved his hand _into Jay’s chest_ , and Len felt like he was going to puke. She aimed her arms forward, a blast of ice nearly identical to the one from his gun flying from her fingertips, but the man moved before it could hit him. He was chasing after Barry, who kept moving as Rory and Firestorm both fired at the dark speedster. With a wave from his hand, Cisco made the ground tremble and _move_ and Zoom fell face first on the broken asphalt, but he was gone before the blast from Lisa’s gun turned part of the ground where he stood moments before to gold, while the blast from Iris’ gun turned the other part to diamonds.

The other speedster was almost catching on to Barry, but then he turned, changed directions, and he was now standing in the middle of the road – between all of them – holding Detective West. “You will watch me kill _everyone_ _you love_ ” Zoom growled, hand raised, “Powerless to stop me! You will beg me to take your lif-”

His words were cut by the sound of Len’s ice gun, the potent blast hitting him square on the back. Barry used this moment to his advance, to swipe in and take Joe from Zoom’s hands, and as soon as the detective was out of her way, Caitlin joined Len on freezing the bastard.

Zoom fell to his knees, and Lisa and Iris shot their guns at him as well, creating a beautiful, diamond-crusted gold statue.

It was over.

 

* * *

 

News crews surrounded the street, helicopters hovering above them. Iris ran towards her father, wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace, and the man looked over her shoulders, nodding at Len with an understanding and mutual respect the criminal – _was he still a criminal_? The thrill of heists was fun and all, but thrill for thrill, fighting villains wasn’t so bad  either, he’d found. And why would he have to choose, anyways? Couldn’t he be both? Captain Cold, the Antihero? – wasn’t used to see. In a bolt of lightning, Barry made his way from where he stood to Len, wrapping his long arms around him, and maybe it was the adrenaline, or maybe he just couldn’t wait any longer, but he pressed his lips to Len’s, firm and demanding and _fast_ , and Len smiled into the kiss as he wrapped his arms around Barry’s waist. Cisco and Lisa were kissing as well, Mick offering a supportive shoulder to Caitlin, who hugged him wordlessly.

 

* * *

 

_“The team of heroes known as_ The Rogues _defeated the dark speedster who’d been terrorizing Central City last night”_ the new anchor announced, happily, and Len rolled his eyes.

“ _Great_ ,” he  groaned, playfully. “We’re _heroes_ now”

Barry elbowed him, but laughed still. “ _The team, consisting of heroes The Flash, Firestorm, Vibe, Killer Frost, and Queen Of Diamonds, former criminals Captain Cold, Heat Wave, and Golden Glider, as well as a man later identified as Detective Joe West, and one still-unidentified man,”_ she went on, _“were able to defeat the Ebony Speedster with the use of Ice-”_

Barry twisted his face around, looking up at Len from his spot lying on the older man’s chest. “Told you you’d be a hero”

 

* * *

 

Len was pardoned. Of _all_ his crimes.

He didn’t know they _could_ do that, but apparently Barry’s friend, Amanda Waller, had friends of her own. He got a letter _from the president_ congratulating him and the rest of ‘his team’ on neutralizing the threat of Zoom.

Leave it to Barry to get him on the good graces of _the president_.

With time, Joe stopped giving him that weird look, which Len then realized wasn’t about his past as a criminal – was because of Barry’s interest in him. Apparently the detective knew even before he did.

Their small group of rogue vigilantes now had a name, thanks to the media’s surprising choice to go with _The Rogues_. It was catchy.

And Len still had nightmares, but they were less frequent now, and whenever he woke up from them, he always found that he had Barry Allen by his side, doing his best to make it better. And that was more than Len ever thought he’d have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up that, while this story is over, the series is not! Tomorrow I'm posting a companion piece, and monday I start posting a sequel.   
> Thank you all for reading and commenting and leaving kudos. You're awesome!


End file.
